It was all that it was cracked up to be. And while I wasn't able to do every obstacle on my own without help on a few, I actually didn't find them as hard as I thought they might be. I was glad AND sad for that. But more importantly, I had a great time and got DIRTY!
I think I have a fetish with wanting to keep sore, also. My arms got a serious beating with all the upper body work and they are still hurting nearly four days later. YOWSER. But what is not to love?
In doing this race, I realized that I used to be a really competitive person. I would KILL myself if I didn't complete an apparatus, or do it right. I would go back and do it over and over until I got it. Or I would train harder and do it again. It was in my nature to exceed at a challenge.
Some of that is still in me. It is. But most of it I think is gone.
A few days after the race I think I realized, after all, what racing really means.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I adore fitness. I really and truly do. I feel that it is something God has placed on my heart to love, to nourish, and to help and inspire others with. And because it is a desire and a passion, He has called me all the more to nourish and flourish with it in the right way.
Things can easily become idols. And I'm guilty of this. Sometimes I can get carried away too much with something I love. Fitness included. Losing too much weight, exercising too much, thinking about it too much, putting my hobbies ABOVE my real job that provides the real income. And the list goes on.
Sometimes it can become so ingrained in our lives that we don't even realize it's taken over.
And sometimes, it's good to take a step back.
I'm not always on point, but I believe that first and foremost above anything we do, the Lord comes first. Even before our spouses (WHAT?!). That's right.
Even though we love our fitness, our nutrition, our photography, our boutique, our gardening, baking, civil war reenacting or WHATEVER it is...HE. COMES. FIRST.
One of the reasons I love fitness and exercise so much is because we have the ability to transform our bodies into something we want them to be. We can narrow our waists, perfect our shoulders, tone our legs, and strengthen our cores. The human body is an amazing machine. And with Him in the center of all of this, placed before us, we will know that He is in control and He is above it all. We will know that the outcomes we seek and desire are those that He has fitted for us and not for ourselves.
As long as we are on this earth our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. So we must fill them with spiritual things and spiritual thoughts. EVEN in and through our passions!
So, join me when I say, I run the races not for my own gain, but for the ultimate prize in looking to Him.
May He be glorified in every squat, every burpee, every bicep curl, every yoga pose, and every last bit of dirt.
Author. Finisher. King.
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